The Perfumed Garden

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

This is the first in a new Vintage series titled The Garden. I read a sign for a beauty salon somewhere called 'The Perfumed Garden' which inspired me to start this series. 

These vintage works are almost like picture puzzles, one element leading to another.I am sure each viewer will have his/her own interpretation. It all started with the idea of a garden and a lovely picture of an octopus, next came the skulls and the trees and then it grew to what you see now. Every garden carries it's death already in it and each death feeds the flowers to grow from it. It's all intricately spun together by the master of the web, which has eight legs, like the octopus who connects both life and death (in my head anyway). The beauty of this cycle is a heady perfume to those that see, from the scent of the flowers to the rotten stench in death. :-)

Assembled with the help of Photoshop and Illustrator, using free and bought sources and public domain images, and of course as always my own kind of magic.

Available as always on Redbubble, Artflakes, DeviantArt, FineArtAmerica, and Society6:

The Woods at Night

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

A little magic on a grey day. This was another experiment. Vector graphics aren't my thing normally, but I thought sometimes it's good to do something outside your comfort zone. This was inspired by the opening screen for Once Upon a Time and then it turned into something else and I think there's more where this came from. I have already started on "The Woods at Sunset". 

I started off with vector graphics for the trees (drawn in Photshop and edited in Illustrator), then I took them back into Photoshop and added colours, textures, the water for the little fish to swim in and the fish themselves. The fish are vintage images which I cut out (digitally) and added into the image. Then I played around with it to add all the magic. ;-)

All images/textures/brushes my own, public domain or bought. Edited with Photoshop.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas). You can now also get most of my images on cushion covers (go to Society6 for these).

All available on Society6

Rapunzel

MCN: CJHT2-F3QA5-MWL7U

This is another shot from my first photo shoot. It's my favourite because of the amount of emotion that comes through. I always liked Rapunzel; children always seem to pay for their parents' mistakes and in that way the tale is quite realistic. Depending on the version of the tale you read Rapunzel does quite a lot to free herself, other than most of the other princesses, which only seem to hang around, often asleep or otherwise incapacitated, waiting to be rescued. ;-) I am still waiting for a gung-ho princess, although, saying that Fhiona from Shrek was a good start....

Part of my new series of images for licensing on Arcangel-Images - use this code: SYST-0186

Created with my own photographs in Photoshop, no stock used.